Six on Saturday 14/05/22

Finally, we’ve had some proper rain. Enough rain fell Tuesday night and Wednesday morning to nearly fill the water butts and the plants look much happier. I’ve spent most of this weeks gardening time getting things ready to go away for a few days. What sort of gardener goes away in April and again in May? Madness! *

• Although I felt I was quite late potting up the Dahlia tubers they have grown really well and have now been outside for a week hardening off. I’ve pinched them all out and they are mostly ready to plant out into the bed that was dug for them last year

Some of the Dahlias hardening off by the still unpainted shed

I dug the tubers up last autumn so that I could underplant them with Narcissi, an idea I read about in Sarah Raven’s book. That way the Dahlias can stay in the ground and the bulbs come up through them every spring. There’s just one problem …….

some of the Narcissi are still flowering and there’s no way the foliage can be left for six weeks to die back. Back to the drawing board I think.

• I planted five Allium schubertii in the above bed last year but only three flowered so I added three more in the autumn. Seven have come up but one is blind. The flowers are just starting to open. I’m sure they will be appearing in a Six again soon.

• The Tulips are going over now and the pink and green ‘ China Town’ will be the last but ’Blue Diamond’ fades beautifully, a bit like an old master tulip.

The multi-headed T. ’Royal Georgette’ is a new favourite and as the flowers age more red shows through.

The Melianthus in the background has been cut back as the lower growth was badly frosted. I’ve taken cuttings because I need more plants (haha! Why is it impossible to not take cuttings).

• Spring bulbs are being replaced with early summer ones and the Dutch Iris are starting to open.

I’ve started putting the Link Stakes around plants and they will, hopefully, become invisible over the next few weeks.

• The new growth of Parthenocissus henyrana has been frosted off twice but it’s third time lucky.

• I was going to break with tradition and put a photo of a lovely garden that we visited a couple of weeks ago – Minterne Garden in Dorset – at the top. However, as I’m away I’m writing this on a tablet and it won’t let me set a featured image. Minterne is a Himalayan inspired garden and was full of colour for our visit. The tea and cakes are highly recommended as well.

Thanks for looking at my Six, there’s so many more to see at https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com

* The sort who is enjoying being able to see their family more!